


because he fucking pushed me, that's why

by Irratia



Category: Julie and The Phantoms (TV)
Genre: Established Relationship, Fluff, Kinda, M/M, Play Fighting, Swearing, funky fresh queer hijinks, still my shortest jatp work thus far, this proves I'm incapable of writing anything under 2000 words
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-01-06
Updated: 2021-01-06
Packaged: 2021-03-17 15:13:43
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,443
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28602015
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Irratia/pseuds/Irratia
Summary: Alex didn’t know how it ended up like this, he really didn’t. But he still ended up wrestiling with his boyfriend over an envelope full of criminally embarrassing pictures.
Relationships: Alex Mercer/Willie (Julie and The Phantoms)
Comments: 23
Kudos: 175





	because he fucking pushed me, that's why

**Author's Note:**

> This was supposed to be a short request which was fine until I relaized I do not know how to play wrestle, the only phsical fights I had were with my sister and I just bit her, so yeah.  
> I hope y'all enjoy this anyway! :D

Alex didn’t know how it ended up like this, he really didn’t. 

It had started much like any time Willie popped by the studio, when he knew it’d be just Alex there. Julie was out shopping with Flynn, Reggie had tagged along with Ray who was running errands the whole day and Luke wanted to see his family again.  
So it was just Alex, hanging out by himself, unable to play the drums because even though Ray now knew that they were here they weren’t allowed to make music on their own. He’d played with the idea of going to find Willie, or just taking a nap, or reading one of the books Julie had recommended for him, but ended up connecting Ray’s old laptop to the speakers to listen to newer music. 

That whole ordeal has taken him a good ten minutes, because technology is still really hard to use and he forgot to turn Bluetooth on, but now some Hayley Kyioko is ringing through the studio. He likes her vibes, and Flynn had described her as “lesbian jesus” with adoration glowing in her eyes when she’d recommended her music to him, so he'd felt morally obligated to listen to her music.

There are still old boxes of their stuff from  _ before  _ in the loft, pushed back and hidden under blankets and pillows and fairy lights, but waiting, if any of them want to rifle through them. Alex sits in front of this pile for a while, staring and debating, while picking at the hem of his hoodie.  
It’s like this that Willie finds him. Alex hears the familiar whooshing sound, and a skateboard hitting the floor where Willie puts it down.

“Hello?” Willie calls, tentatively, “Anyone here?”

Alex crawls to the edge of the loft, leaning through the banister. “I’m up here,” he says softly, and smiles at Willie, who whirls around and looks up. 

“Hey Hotdog, fancy seeing you here,” Willie says, and grins when Alex rolls his eyes.  “Just come up here, will you, you goon?” 

Willie obliges, grinning, climbing up the ladder as Alex scoots back, to the beanbag that Julie has settled on the other side of the space, opposite the boxes. The guys and him like napping there, sometimes alone, sometimes with more people. It’s a big bean bag and none of them have ever minded close physical contact. He settles down on it the second Willie’s head pops up in the opening and Alex pats the space next to him. Willie doesn’t need to be asked twice and almost throws himself onto it, slinging an arm around Alex’s shoulder immediately. 

They’re pressed flush, side by side and Alex leans into Willie, pressing a soft kiss to his cheek. “Hi,”  “Hi,” Willie says back, smiling softly.  
He offers up his free hand, laying it down on his thigh, palm up, and Alex takes the opportunity immediately, taking it up with both of his. He slots one hand underneath Willie’s wiggling his fingers until they tangle, and follows the lines of Willie’s palm with the index of his other.

“So, what’re you up to today?” Willie asks, after watching Alex for a moment. Alex sighs. “I’ve been thinking about going through all our old stuff. We’ve only really looked at the clothes, but I know there’s more of our shit here,”

Willie hums. “What’s holding you back?”

“I’m kinda scared, to be honest. There are a lot of memories in these boxes,” he gestures, raising their hands in the general direction, keeping his exes on Willie who’s got a pensive expression on his face.

“And you’re scared of what they might bring up?”

Alex nods. Willie knocks their shoulders together and does his thing where he raises his eyebrows really quickly, which he always does when he’s particularly fond of Alex. (According to Luke, anyway.). “Want me to go through them with you?” 

Alex doesn’t do well in hiding his surprise, he never really has been. “I- yeah, actually. That’d be nice, okay,” he says, and nods. 

Willie smiles at him. “Only if you want to, you know that,”

“Yeah, I want to, I really do. I think some of my old rings might still be in there somewhere. And the first notebook Luke had for writing songs, they were so bad and I need to show them to Julie,” Alex snorts, remembering “ _Me And Now_ ’, the first song Luke showed them, when they were all 13, and they’d thought it was the coolest thing ever. A few years later they’d all cringed at it, but it’s hilarious, looking back.

Willie chuckles. “Oh, I have to see that,” 

“You really do, it’s so bad at times. Luke was really into metaphors at first, but just really bad ones. Stuff like ‘chocolate river eyes’,” Alex gets up, pulling Willie with him while he giggles.

“Christ, that’s terrible,” 

“Told you so.”   


They start by putting all the stuff on the blankets to the side, all organized neatly because Julie will kill them if they make a mess. Willie folds the blankets expertly, and puts them to the side, and then they stand in front of the boxes, all stacked up neatly and labeled with handwriting that Alex still recognizes after 25 years.  
He steps closer, tracing his fingers over the ‘ _misc_ ’ on one of them.  
He wonders if Bobby still has the same slanting handwriting that they’d all been jealous of.

“You sure?” Willie steps up next to him, nudging their hands together in question. 

Alex nods. They start with this box, which just contains a lot of unused and never given out demos and also the sketches of their original logo design. Willie asks questions and Alex answers, and they pack it up neatly again and move on to the next. Alex finds a little bag with all of his abandoned jewellery in the third, along with a ton of Luke’s guitar picks, all of which probably were in his mouth at some point, and dried out nail polish from when Reggie was testing to see if it suited him. 

“Yikes,” Willie comments when Alex tells him that, throwing the pink pick he’d just been holding back in the box. Alex grins and pours the contents of the little bag onto the wooden floor of the loft. His rings, all the rings he or the others had bought are still there, and the spare necklace he used to keep with him, so he had something just in case his usual one broke. The golden cross is there as well, but he shoves it back in the back quickly. Willie picks up a ring and raises an eyebrow, surveilling it. It looks like the prints of dog paws, welded together. 

“Reggie gave me that one,” Alex says.

“Uhuh. You wore it?” Willie asks, teasing grin tugging at his lips. 

“Maybe,” Alex holds out his hand for Willie to give it back, slightly embarrassed.

“Aw, that’s cute. Do you think Reggie would mind if I keep it?”

Alex splutters. “You want to keep it?” 

“Yeah, it’s cute, why not? Something to remind me of you,” Willie fits it onto the ring finger on his left hand, wiggling his fingers and showing off.

“Fuck off,” Alex mutters, blushing and shoves the rest of the rings back into the bag, setting it aside for later. “I don’t think Reg would mind. He’d probably be ecstatic.”   


“Nice,” Willie says and grins. He looks pleased with himself and Alex stops for a moment to watch him tug his hair behind his ears, and the way the silky strands sway with the movement.  
“Next box?” Willie asks, after he definitely catches Alex staring. Alex nods, again.

It’s full of photographs. All of them are packed into envelopes and labeled, and Alex can’t really bring himself to just take one. He knows he’ll see the four of them there, in various ages. Luke’s parents had gotten him a camera one Christmas, hoping to sway him from his obsession with music, but Reggie had been the one to use it, really. He’d taken photographs of everything.    
Willie also hesitates, looking at Alex, question whether he’s going to be okay evident in his eyes. Alex nods in confirmation and Willie begins rifling through the envelopes, while Alex tries to get his bearings. 

“Oh,” Willie coos, delighted. He holds up an envelope that only says ‘Alex Earrings”. 

It’s like a block of ice falling into his stomach, when he sees it. Alex knows exactly what kind of pictures Willie will find in there, if he opens the envelope.  
Back in the early nineties he’d desperately wanted to get an earring, but didn’t have the courage to go to a professional, mostly because of its place and implications. They’d decided they could just pierce his earlobe at home. Reggie had documented the entire process, as well as the aftermath of a not entirely sterilized needle. When the pictures had been developed Bobby, Luke and Reggie had sat and looked through them together, crying with laughter, while Alex nursed the healed, but still sensitive ear. 

Willie can not, under any circumstances, see the pictures. Alex launches himself at his boyfriend the second he gets his fingers under the glue.   
“What the-” Willie doesn’t even get to finish, because Alex is on top of him, knocking him back.

“You cannot look at those,” he says, trying to explain, reaching for the envelope that Willie has dropped in his surprise.

“Oh? Why not?”

“They’re embarrassing,” Alex struggles to move forward, because Willie starts fighting back now. 

“Bad argument, Hotdog,” Willie says, grinning, and then surges upwards, almost knocking their heads together, and throwing Alex way off balance. ‘

“Willie, please,” Alex grips at the other boy’s shirt, trying to hold him back from reaching for them. Willie winks, then throws himself forward with his entire weight, pulling Alex with him. Alex uses his knees to push himself up, so that he lands on Willie’s back, pressing him to the floor, and from then on things just completely derail. 

Willie somehow throws Alex off him, and reaches for the envelope, holding it up triumphantly. Alex swipes for it, pushing Willie back, manages to rip the photos from his fingers and tries to scramble away. Willie goes after him, wrapping his arms around Alex’s waist and pulling him back, something that would usually pretty much shut down his systems, he’s sure, but he really doesn’t want Willie to see the pictures. He struggles, letting go of the envelope, and managing to kick it away with his foot, before Willie lets him go and he lands on his back. Willie tries to surge forward, to grab it, but Alex manages to get his hands around one of his shoulders and pulls him back. WIllie struggles, of course, and so does Alex to hold him, because here he doesn’t have the advantage of his height.  
Willie is technically stronger than him, and manages to pin him down, but Alex has wrestled and rolled around with the other guys more times than he can count for various reasons, so he knows how to get out from under someone. It’s a back and forth, of pulling at each other and scrambling forward, if only for a few centimeters. 

Alex doesn’t realize it until he has Willie in a headlock and they pause for a moment, wheezing, that he’s somewhat forgotten about why they’re doing… this. He’s laughing, and so is Willie, and it’s fun, because neither of them is doing this with ill intent or too much strength or in a way that hurts them, although he’ll probably have some bruises tomorrow. The pains of being pale as fuck.

“Wanna give up yet?” he asks, managing to get the words out through panting breaths and giggles. Willie slides an arm around his back, and turns his head slightly in Alex’s grip, grinning. “You wish.” Then he flips him over. 

Alex lands on his back with a huff and expects Willie to get the envelope now, but instead he leans back on his knees for a second, huffing out a breath. Wille grins at him, then crawls over, hovering over Alex on his hands and knees. Still on his back, breathing heavy, Alex looks up at him.

It’s times like this when he gets hit with how lucky he actually is, how blessed he is to have Willie as his boyfriend. It rushes over him in the weirdest moments, like right now, after they’ve wrestled each other over a dumb envelope for ten minutes, with Willie leaning over him, cheeks slightly flushed and eyes alive, grin lighting up his face.  
His long brown hair is loose, framing his face, tickling Alex’s collarbone as he leans over him, and he’s beautiful. Breathtaking, just as he was when they first met. Alex sometimes still can’t believe that he gets to have that.  
Gets to have this, after everything they’ve been through, separate and together.  
But he does, and he’s reminded he does by Willie’s grin turning into a soft smile, and by Willie leaning down, pressing a soft kiss to Alex’s lips. Alex answers, bringing his hands up to brush the hair away, and cupping Willie’s jaw. They smile against each others lips, the moment soft and warm and peaceful, and then Willie lets himself collapse onto Alex, who groans.

“Fuck you,” he says, still holding onto Willie’s face gently. 

“You don’t have to show me the photos if you don’t want to,” Willie says in response leaning into the touch, and warmth floods Alex’s chest in a wave of affection.

“I know,” he says, then sighs. “You get to see them when the others come home. Julie should see them too, then I can get the ridicule over with.”

“We both know that’s not true, I’ll never let you live them down,” Willie snorts. “Or that you physically fought me for them.”

Alex rolls his eyes. “I didn’t physically fight you, we just wrestled a bit.”

“Also I beat you,” Willie grins when Alex shoves his face away.

“No the fuck you didn’t, I let you win.”

“You’re a sore loser,” Willie taunts, grinning, and moves back into a sitting position.

“I’m not, fuck off,” Alex says, pushing himself up. Willie raises a single eyebrow, ever the cocky show-off, and Alex kisses him.

Willie was right, though. The others laugh themselves to tears going through the pictures and it’s all he hears about for the next week. They also laugh tears when Willie tells them about Alex’s physical defense of the pictures. He’s not allowed to live that down for even longer.

**Author's Note:**

> Honestly don't ask me anything, not why, not anything because I do not know. I hope y'all enjoyed because no matter what happens I'll always love soft Willex.  
> I'm also uploading at 2 am because I make bad decisions so bear with me.  
> If you feel like chatting, about jatp or in general, you can find me on Tumblr as [on-irratia](https://www.tumblr.com/blog/on-irratia)  
> have a good day/ night/ rest of time! :D


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